#6 - BJ Penn & the Lose-Lose Situation
I don't mean to be disrespectful or unappreciative to a guaranteed Hall of Famer and the best Lightweight fighter ever, but BJ Penn (16-8) is frustration incarnate. Excuse me while I bang my face into my keyboard a few times as I search for words. Okay, I'm back. Try this one: BJ is the genius kid who sits at the back of the class shooting snot rockets rather than doing his Calculus. No matter what the result, his fight against Rory MacDonald is truly a lose-lose situation. Let me explain. If he loses to the younger, bigger, hungrier MacDonald, then BJ will likely retire. Again. He quit once before after getting disfigured into the
Toxic Avenger by Nick Diaz. He's only 33 years old and still within the tail end of his prime. To lose a natural like Penn with sublime jits, concrete hands, and an iron chin would be a tragic loss for the sport. Yet if he wins, then BJ will be convinced that he's competitive with the elites at Welterweight and stick around at 170. He's not. And he shouldn't. Outside of the Lightweight division, BJ is a paltry 3-5-1. Eeeh. I know why he fled from LW. He just happened to face the perfect fighter in Frankie Edgar to outpoint him twice in their back-to-back title matches in 2010. Is that a reason to retire? Maybe. Maybe not. Is that a reason to quit dieting so you can fight at Welterweight? No. No. No. Why couldn't he just take his training seriously, come into every fight at 100%, move to a power camp in the mainland USA, and fight the new crop of Lightweight contenders? Why, BJ? WHY?
